Communion Rite

Excerpts from the book, A Biblical Walk Through The Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy written by Edward Sri, S.T.D. and printed by Ascension Press in 2011.

As we approach the Lord’s Prayer, the priest notes what a privilege it is for us to be able to talk to God in this way.

Priest: At the Savior’s command
and formed by divine teaching,
we dare to say.

All: Our Father,
Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer was taught by Jesus in the gospels and has been used in the Mass throughout the centuries. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Lord’s Prayer is how it leads us to address God as “Father”. The ancient Jews certainly viewed God as the father of the people of Israel, but it was not at all common for an individual to address God as “Father”. Nevertheless, this is precisely what Jesus calls us to do. It underscores the intimate relationship we now have with God because of Jesus’ work of salvation.

The Our Father has traditionally been divided into seven petitions with the first three focused on God (thy name, thy kingdom, and thy will) and the last four focused on our needs (give us, forgive us, lead us, and deliver us).

Priest: Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil,
graciously grant peace in our days,
that, by the help of your mercy,
we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress,
as we await the blessing hope
and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The peace envisioned here is more than an absence of war or hostility in the world. The biblical understanding of peace (shalom) is first and foremost something profoundly personal and from God flowing from faithfulness to God’s covenant. When individuals entrust their lives to the Lord and follow his plan, they discover a deep inner peace within themselves, and it is this inner peace that flows into the world through right-ordered, harmonious relationships with others.

This is the kind of peace we pray for in the Mass. God’s law is the pathway to happiness, and breaking it leads to a loss of peace. If we give in to selfishness, pride, envy, lust, or greed, we will never be happy. We will always be insecure, restlessly seeking more control, more attention, more wealth, or more pleasure, while being constantly worried about losing what we already posses. When preoccupations dominate our hearts and cause us to loose our peace, it is a sign that something is wrong spiritually.

All: For the kingdom, the power and glory are yours now and forever.

Like the angels in heaven once again, the people respond to the priest’s prayer by praising God. When we pray it, we come in contact with the Mass of some of the earliest Christians. These words are taken from a prayer of thanksgiving used in the celebration of the Eucharist in the first generation of Christianity after the apostles. Moreover, the words themselves reach 1,000 years further back into the Old Testament period.

They are derived from King David’s climatic praise of God at the end of his reign. At every Mass, we echo these words of King David. In doing so, we acknowledge God as the Lord of our lives and praise him for all the blessings he bestows upon us. Whatever good we might do, whatever success we might experience, ultimately comes from God.

Priest: Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your apostles,
Peace I leave you, my peace I give you,
look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church,
and graciously grant her peace and unity
in accordance with your will.

After petitioning the Father for the gift of peace, the priest now addresses Jesus, recalling his words to the apostles at the last Supper. Many people seek the security and peace of this world, but this kind of peace is quite fragile and fleeting. It is dependent on external circumstances that can easily change. To base one’s life on these shaky foundations does not bring real peace at all. It breeds insecurity.

Christ, however, offers us a deeper, longer lasting peace, one that the world does not give. When we allow Jesus to be the foundation of our lives and live according to his plan for us, he gives us an internal, spiritual peace that can withstand life’s many disappointments, trails, and sufferings. This is the kind of peace of heart that also builds true unity within marriages, families, and communities, parishes, and nations. This is what the priest prays for at this moment in the liturgy.

Next comes the sign of peace, which reflects ancient an Christian practice and the exhortations of Saints Peter and Paul. In the Mass today, we exchange some sign that expresses peace, communion, and charity. Whatever the gesture, the rite of peace can be seen as connecting the Our Father with the reception of Holy Communion about to take place.

The gospels report four occasions when Jesus himself broke bread. When feeding the crowds, Jesus took loaves of bread, blessed them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute. Matthew underscores how the multiplication of loaves prefigures the even greater miracle of the Eucharist. In the former passage, Jesus multiplied loaves to feed a large crowd. In the latter, he offers a supernatural bread, the Eucharistic Bread of Life, to nourish an even greater amount of people, the great multitude of Christians who receive communion throughout the world and throughout the ages.

The Acts of the Apostles describes how the early Church gathered for the breaking of bread. So important was the gathering for “the breaking of bread” that Acts lists it as one of the four chief characteristics of the lives of the first Christians. St. Paul himself not only used the expression of breaking bread to describe the Eucharist. He also saw rich symbolism in the ritual of many people partaking of the same loaf of bread. For Paul, this points to the deep unity Christians share when we partake of the one Body of Christ.

After breaking the host, the priest places a small piece into the chalice while quietly saying,

Priest: “May this mingling of the Body and Blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ
bring eternal life to us who receive it.”

This ritual, known as the commingling, was used at one time to express the unity of the Church. Some also have interpreted this ritual as a symbol reenacting Christ’s resurrection. While the priest performs the rite of breaking the host and the commingling, the people sing or say the following prayer.

People: Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.

This is another prayer that takes us right up to God’s throne. When we recite these words, we join the myriad of angels who worship Jesus as the victorious Lamb in the heavenly liturgy that St. John describes in the book of Revelation. We join this chorus of heaven and earth in worshiping the Lamb when we recite the Agnus Dei in the Mass. It is fitting that we address Jesus, saying “Lamb of God” for the New Testament reveals Jesus as the new Passover lamb who was sacrificed for our sake.

John’s gospel, in particular, highlights how Jesus, in his death on the cross, should be seen as the Passover lamb sacrificed on our behalf. When John gives the account of the soldiers raising up to Jesus’ mouth a sponge of vinegar, he notes it was put on a hyssop branch. John notes this detail so that we can see Jesus’ death as a Passover sacrifice. Just as hyssop was used in the first Passover sacrifice, now it is used on Calvary with Jesus, the new sacrificial Lamb.

The words of the Lamb of God prayer, however, come most directly from John the Baptist. When he first saw Jesus during his baptism ministry at the Jordan, he cries out “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. With these words, John is recognizing Jesus as the great Suffering Servant prophesied by Isaiah. Isaiah foretold that God one day would send someone to rescue Israel from sin, and he would to it by suffering “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter”. Moreover, this servant of the Lord would bear the people’s iniquities and “make himself an offering for sin”, and his self-offering would have redemptive power. Through his sacrifice, many will be made righteous.

Have you ever thought of the Mass as a wedding feast? We can understand how the Mass is a wedding feast by considering the words of the priest shortly before we receive communion.

Priest: Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

These words are taken from a climactic moment in the book of Revelation and indeed, the entire Bible. The angel instructs John to write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”. This festive supper of the Lamb is the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist. This climactic supper of the Lamb is clearly some type of Passover meal, and in light of the liturgical framework of the book of Revelation, it would be understood as the new Passover of the Eucharist. But this passage tells us something even more dramatic. In Revelation 19:6-9, the Lamb is revealed to be a bridegroom; and this means this Passover supper is a wedding feast.

Indeed, holy communion has a marital dimension. Husbands and wives give themselves to each other uniting their bodies in the most intimate way possible. Similarly, our divine Bridegroom comes to unite Himself to us in the most intimate way possible here on earth, giving his very body and blood to us in the Eucharist. We should want to rest with Our Lord. This is the time for us to take a few moments to rest with our Beloved, to give him our tender attention and thanksgiving, and to express our love for him.

In response to the invitation to the marriage supper of the Eucharist, we say a prayer that on one hand, acknowledges our complete unworthiness to receive our Lord, and at the same time, expresses confidence that Jesus calls us and can heal us.

People: Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

Like the centurion, we recognize our unworthiness to have Jesus come under the “roof” of our souls in Holy Communion. Yet just as the centurion believed Jesus was able to heal his servant, so do we trust that Jesus can heal us as he becomes the most intimate guest of our soul in the Eucharist.